Re: paleonet ID and function

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In a message dated 8/30/2005 4:24:34 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, graham.budd@pal.uu.se writes:

The comments above by Dinogeorge reflect some made by Hume in the 18th
Century, and for what it's worth, have not been generally regarded as
unanswerable by theologians. It is true that, in the same way as
arguments of "cause", there must be a "First Designer" to avoid
infinite regress. But by hypothesis, a First Cause or First Designer
is different from the things that flow from it. The "Cause" of all
things, or the "Designer" of all things obviously cannot be caused or
designed, or indeed, a thing, if one also accepts the "all things are
caused" argument, which incidentally, is quite a popular maxim amongst
scientists. So the comments above are generally thought to embody a
category mistake.

Yes, well, this would simply be option B: nobody designed the Designer. Then, of course, there is no a priori reason that the so-called First Cause must be supernatural, or the kind of deity that many IDiots picture the Intelligent Designer to be. So, why would not the First Cause simply be evolution by natural selection? Natural selection is certainly "different from the things that flow from it," for example, organisms and populations; and it stands apart from the universe itself as a very general organizing principle within that, or any other, universe. In other words, no matter what the material universe is like, if it includes a chemistry and a physics, then natural selection will operate within it. Indeed, if there is anything to the "many worlds" hypothesis, then natural selection may even operate on universes themselves, say to select those whose structure permits the evolution of living things, if those kinds of universes somehow preferentially give rise to other such universes. Natural selection even applies to religions and scientific theories, in their respective contexts.

The IDiots try to weasel their version of God into scientific theory as an Intelligent Designer, but when you start pinning them down as to just what the properties of this Designer would be, they backpedal into philosophical twaddle like "First Causes" and the like. The real issue here is political: who gets to control "truth," and thereby, the masses.